Thursday, 24 November 2011

I really enjoy cooking when I have free time, but after a day of work I really don't feel like faffing about in the kitchen for myself. What I love is convenience. Last night for example, it wasn't a ready meal, but I had pork belly strips marinating in oyster sauce in the fridge, so I just threw a couple into a pyrex dish with a tiny bit of stock and cooked them in the oven. Gorgeous flavours but not exactly a well rounded meal.

As a really early dinner today I had an Amy's Kitchen macaroni cheese which is a gluten free ready meal. It's utter comfort food though and whilst it is very tasty, again it's not exactly a balanced meal. I'm ashamed to admit this but I don't recall the last time I ingested a vegetable. With all the deficiencies that go with coeliac disease, this isn't very smart on my part.

There are some great independent companies in the UK who are venturing into the gluten free ready meal market, but I'm yet to find one who doesn't use pepper in them.

If you don't have a pepper allergy like me then you're sure to find a gluten free ready meal to enjoy from the lovely Angela.

Though not a ready meal maker Foodamentalists make a gluten free pork pie that deserves a special mention. I haven't been able to try it because the ppm is just a little too high for me but if you eat Genius pies without any problems then these should be fine too. I constantly see tweets about them selling out from various places so they must be good!

So I'm thinking, what if over the weekend I make some meals up and freeze them? Proper meals that have vegetables included, that I can just throw into the microwave and eat. No fuss, no gluten and no pepper. Think that's a plan, now I just have to go search for "vegetables that freeze well when cooked".

On a cold and cough update, I'm on my second pack of Covonia, this time in Berry Blast flavour (first pack was Strong Original which I actually liked the taste of) and I'm not a fan of this flavour but hey, it's gluten free and if it works I will be breathing easy.